Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/295983
20 UCW APRIL 16-22, 2014 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 700 Days In 700 Sundays, Billy Crystal explores the forging of a Jewish comedian's soul by DEAN ROBBINS Billy Crystal performs his Tony-winning one-man play 700 Sundays before a live audience, telling the story of his wonderful, horrible Long Island childhood (Saturday, 9 p.m., HBO). He stands in front of a brick façade that evokes his modest abode, with home movies and photos from the 1950s and '60s flashing on the walls. " When I was a kid," he says, "I would do anything for a laugh." Well, little has changed. 700 Sundays is a tour de force of jokes, impressions, tap-dancing, funny faces and pantomime as Crystal lovingly reanimates his meshugga Jewish household. For an established star in his 60s, he still has the manic energy of a Borscht Belt comedian trying to break into the big time. He delivers the script's well-crafted lines at breakneck speed, his dial turned up to 11. It's a virtuosic display, lending the performance a heightened, theatrical quality. We're plunged into a phantasmagoria of chain-smoking aunts and phlegmy grandparents, each characterized with the precision of a master novelist. At the center of the madhouse, taking it all in, is young Billy, who finds his vocation doing standup for family members in the living room. For all its belly laughs (and believe me, you will be sore), 700 Sundays is ultimately a poignant remembrance of things past. The show's title comes from Crystal's calculation that he had 700 glorious Sundays with his father by age 15, when an untimely heart attack spoiled all the fun. He develops an uncanny intimacy with the audience by confessing his doubt and pain. At the same time, he undercuts the sentimentality with absurdist humor. I believe the technical phrase for this feat is "work of art.". Orphan Black Saturday, 9 pm (BBC America) Last year, this human-cloning drama started with a bang. A London punk named Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) stumbled on a secret world after witnessing a clone of herself commit suicide. Maslany was impressive as a woman seeking the truth, but she's become less impressive as three women seeking the truth. At the start of season two, she's playing Sarah and her clones Alison and Cosima, and the additional characters don't make much of an impression. Neither does the now- confusing plot, involving a sinister company that's fooling with Mother Nature. The filmmakers want to freak us out about cloning's catastrophic effect on the human race. Right now, I'm more freaked out about its catastrophic effect on the once-promising Orphan Black. Big-Ass Spider Saturday, 9 pm (Syfy) You probably don't require the services of a TV critic to explicate this creature feature, in which an alien spider terrorizes Los Angeles. But I will offer one insight, for what it's worth: The title is not false advertising. Consideration, On a Roll Are you annoyed when "you-know-who" leaves an empty roll? That's no excuse for annoying Mother Nature by being inconsiderate about our environment. Cardboard rolls ("tp," paper towel, etc.) can be recycled! Just Can It, along with other recyclables, in your City-issued Blue Cart. Learn more about the things you can recycle at CityofFayetteville.org/curbside/. 433-1FAY